Update from Shooters Union re. Processing Times

[the_sovereign_man]

QLD LEGISLATION CHANGE SHOULD EASE WLB PROCESSING DELAYS

A co-operative effort by Shooters Union, the Firearm Dealers Association of Queensland, and SSAA Queensland has helped facilitate changes to the Weapons Act 1990 which will allow civilian staff and non-commissioned police officers at Weapons Licensing to have Authorised Officer status, hopefully reducing processing times for licences and PTAs.

The changes have come about via the passage of the Police Service Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2022.

Despite the addition of another approximately 40 staff to Weapons Licensing Branch, as well as additional shifts, licence and PTA processing times were not reducing noticeably.

We understood this was due to a shortage of Authorised Officers (who could, previously, only be the Police Commissioner themselves, an executive officer or commissioned officer of the Queensland Police, or a a police officer appointed as an authorised officer by the commissioner) – meaning that licences and PTAs could be processed faster, but were bottlenecking at the approval stage.

The newly passed changes mean suitably qualified or experienced civilian staff and police officers will now be able to function as Authorised Officers; Police Minister Mark Ryan advises us there are currently an additional 10 such staff at WLB who can potentially be granted Authorised Officer powers.

The issue of licence and PTA processing delays in Queensland has been ongoing for some time and we have been particularly active in fighting for getting it sorted out, aided by the Firearm Dealers Association of Queensland – whose members have literally millions of dollars in stock they are unable to dispose of to buyers clogging up storerooms and warehouses as a result of delays - as well as SSAA Queensland who have joined us in advocating for a fair go all shooters.

Our combined efforts were bolstered by KAP MPs Shane Knuth and Robbie Katter raising the issue in Parliament on multiple occasions, helping to impress upon the Police Minister and other members of Cabinet that this was a serious issue which not only needed fixing, but that ignoring it was potentially compromising public safety.

We would like to thank everyone who worked with us and supported us in getting this small but important change made – and that includes Weapons Licensing Branch and the Police Minister, who acknowledged this was a serious issue and took practical steps to fix it.

We aren’t going to pretend this is a magic bullet that will solve WLB’s delays immediately – but it is an excellent start and we look forward to seeing an improvement in processing times as soon as the legislation is implemented.

[Widgeon58]

Just curious its now almost 6 moths since that post have processing times Improved?